A Kansas firearms distributor is charged with bribing and paying kickbacks to Glock executives.

On June 4, federal prosecutors charged John Sullivan Ralph III, the owner of OMB Guns in Olathe, Kansas, with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering charges for paying Glock executives $1 million in bribes and kickbacks to receive preferential treatment.

The indictment alleges Ralph secretly paid executives of Glock to receive preferential treatment over other distributors of firearms, including directing potential customers to his company, giving his company priority access to limited products, steering government contracts and sales to government agencies of firearms and accessories to his company, and providing confidential Glock information to him.

Facing identical charges are James “Craig” Dutton, the former assistant national sales manager for Glock in Smyrna, Georgia – where Glock’s headquarters are located, and Welcome “Bo” Wood, Jr, Glock’s former eastern regional manager.

Both of their wives are also facing identical charges for concealing the payments of bribes and kickbacks through shell companies.

Here’s what happened: Glock has two sales channels, one for law enforcement agencies and one for the commercial market. The price for pistols sold to law enforcement agencies is cheaper because they usually buy in bulk and they have to go through bidding processes.

Ralph allegedly paid the two Glock execs to help him convert the tags for firearms sold to him with the law enforcement discount to tags for the premium price sold to the commercial market.

According to the Kansas City Division of the FBI, Ralph sold at least 14,000 pistols with altered tags to a number of commercial buyers, including Cabela’s.

From 2003 to 2009, he allegedly sent 140 bribes and kickbacks through the mail to Lisa Dutton and Paula Wood, who both concealed the tracks of the payments. And from 2009 to 2011, Ralph sent them approximately 80 bribes and kickbacks through wire transfers.

The defendants each face one count of conspiracy, 11 counts of wire fraud and 10 counts of money laundering.

Each conspiracy and wire fraud count comes with up to 30 years in a federal prison and up to $1 million in fines.

Each money laundering count comes with a maximum of 20 years in prison and up to $50,000 in fines.